The premise of The Uncanny Valley is that a radio station in central Pennsylvania launched a campaign to compile stories and personal accounts from small town citizens that showcase the culture of their hometowns. Supposedly, thirty-three entries came from the same unheard-of town called Uncanny Valley, which may or may not have ever existed on a map, and the tales they tell are singular and incredible. Those stories are collected in this book, written in thirty-three individual voices belonging to the residents of this ethereal town.
It would be easy to categorize this as a collection of ghost stories, except that so many of them are about living, breathing people who stay that way, albeit usually with some kind of transformation. Rather, this is a series of distinctly peculiar tales that add on one another to create a composite view of a remarkable town and its denizens. In bite-sized installments, none of the stories more than a few pages long, we are taken on a journey through the strange and wondrous annals of the Uncanny Valley. The fictional small town setting serves as a microcosm, within which rules we live by are bent at will and nothing is more certain than uncertainty.
Miller manages his large cast of characters adeptly, successfully transitioning between old and young, male and female, corporeal and not. Their personal tales are deftly interwoven, giving credence to their existence as neighbors, family, and friends. It’s fun to see characters who gave testimony earlier in the book appear in the third person walking in and out of their friends’ accounts. Frankly, I was waiting for some historical or character discrepancy to surface, but was pleasantly surprised to find consistency throughout.
Today we are excited to be joined by our first guest reviewer, fellow bookseller-in-exile 
a current contributor to Slate magazine. My admiration for her writing stems back to 2010. When everyone in the literary community (myself included) was eagerly reading Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, O’Rourke wrote a 
Reading this book cemented two things in my mind:
If you need a fabulous Alphabet book — this is it! It is fun to read, well-paced and brilliant. It should be in every kindergarten classroom and is a perfect gift for any 3-6 year old.
I love babies. Seriously. I think my biological clock started ticking when I was three. It doesn’t matter if it is one I know or don’t: If I see a baby, I want to kiss, hug, and take care of it. I have no qualms with changing poopy diapers, being spit-up on, or dealing with the ridiculous whims of a sleepy-yet-fighting-sleep infant. So when I tell you that The Arrivals had me reconsidering my love of children, you can imagine the kind of problems the parents have to deal with because of their children. Excuse me, their adult children.
High school can be a tricky four years to navigate under the best of circumstances. For 15-year-old Jamie, there is an added complication: he is gay. We’re living in 2011, when acceptance of the LGBT community is continually reaching new highs, but coming out to family and friends can still be a very difficult and terrifying step, especially for a teenager. Jamie doesn’t want to wave flags or march in parades; he just wants to feel “normal” and make it through high school intact.
A friend and loyal reader of our blog requested that I review this book, and what a great suggestion that was. Timely and certainly a fun book to review! Her reasoning was: “Because if you like it, I’m buying it for all my friends who have kids.”
Considering this is book won the 2011 Caldecott Medal, I’m hardly the first person to sing its praises. If you are not familiar with it, you’ll be wanting to find a copy at a bookstore in your area.
I am declaring this week Children’s Book Review Week here at BwoB, both because I’m a little behind on my other reading and because it’s nice to try writing outside my usual realm of YA, genre, and select non-fiction. It should be noted that many of the titles I review this week were first recommended to me by fellow blogger 
Booksellers Without Borders
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Recidivist Reader
hardboundandgagged
ipsedixit
turpentinestevens
überliterate
Booksellers Without Borders 